Violinist Michelle Abraham is the newly appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. She was the concertmaster of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra in Ohio for four seasons, and served as guest concertmaster of the Suburban Symphony Orchestra in Cleveland. Deeply committed to music education, Michelle teaches Suzuki and Traditional violin students ages 2-20. She taught at The Music Settlement and the Oberlin Community Music School in Ohio, and taught and coached for several summers at the New England Music Camp in Maine. Passionate about combining her loves of chamber music and music education, Michelle founded the Intensive String Quartet program at NEMC last summer, and has presented educational chamber music programs in the Cleveland Public Schools as well as in the Banff and Bow Valley Communities in Alberta, Canada.
In recital, Michelle collaborates with pianists Peter Takács, Shuai Wang, and Dean Zhang, and violinist Tim Kantor, and has appeared as guest artist on Faculty Chamber Music Series at Oberlin Conservatory, the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University, and the Fred Fox School of Music at the University of Arizona. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stony Brook University, a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet, Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian, and Paul Kantor. A Connecticut native, Michelle enjoys watching basketball and playing with her dog Seppe and cat Ella.